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2024-10-30 14:15:29| Engadget

Well, it finally happened. After years of waiting and requests, Amazon debuted the $280 Kindle Colorsoft, its first ereader with a color display. The companys ereaders have dominated this space since the original Kindle came out 17 years ago, but in this case, it feels like Amazon is playing catch-up. Color E Ink displays arent novel: weve tested and reviewed a number of color ereaders and E Ink tablets from Kobo, Boox and reMarkable in recent years. But Amazon is essentially trying to pull an Apple with the Colorsoft: with claims that color E Ink technology just wasnt good enough to put into a Kindle until now, Amazons promising the Colorsoft gets this implementation right thanks in part to the custom tweaks it made to the display. And, unsurprisingly, Amazons ready to charge you a premium for it. So is it all its cracked up to be? As you might suspect, the answer isnt as simple as yes or no. Screen technology and comparisons Lets get the tech details squared away first. The Kindle Colorsofts seven-inch screen is based on E Ink Kaleido 3 technology, but a representative from the Kindle team explained to me that they developed a custom display stack for this device. That means they made quite a few changes to the tech in order to achieve things like higher-contrast pigments and improved speeds overall. The Colorsofts custom oxide backplane uses 24 driving volts to move pigments around more quickly and it helps those pigments appear with better contrast. Nitride LEDs enhance colors and brightness, and a custom coating in between the displays layers helps focus light through each pigment so theres less color mixing. Some of the same tech helps make page-turns quicker and supposedly reduces excessively noticeable screen refreshing when you go from one color page to another, or pinch-and-zoom on an image. Thats all to say that Amazon would like you to believe that this E Ink Kaleido 3 screen is not like the other girls in this space, and while I do not doubt the Kindle teams efforts, the differences are not as dramatic as the story would suggest. Until Kobo updates the Sage with color, the closest competitor to the $280 Kindle Colorsoft is the $220 Kobo Libra Colour (in size, platform and overall experience), so I did a lot of side-by-side comparisons of the two. The biggest difference I saw was that the Kobos screen skews warmer than the Kindles; I kicked the brightness up to the maximum and turned all warm/natural light settings down to zero on both devices and the difference was noticeable, regardless of if the displays were showing color images, black-and-white text or a mix of the two. This would suggest that the Kindle will show more accurate colors more often since theres less of a warm lean to its display. But on the flip side, the Kindle screens blue tint was just as noticeable, particularly in low-light situations (like a dark office or a dimly lit living room). At max brightness with warmth down to zero, the Kindles screen was borderline uncomfortable to read in those environments but all it took was a slight adjustment to warmth level four (out of 24) to get it to match the Kobos display in warmth almost exactly (at least to my eyes). That made it more comfortable to stare at in dark spaces. I also compared the Colorsofts screen to my personal Kindle Paperwhite (previous generation) and the blue skew was noticeable there too. Ultimately, how much warm or cool light you prefer while reading is up to personal taste. My preferences would lead me to adjust the warmth on the Kindle to be a bit higher than zero, mimicking that of the Kobo. In an unscientific poll of the Engadget staff, both in person and with device photos, everybody preferred the screen on the Kobo. I think the slight added warmth in Kobos screen makes colors appear a bit more saturated and more inviting overall. It also gets close to mimicking the look of actual physical pages (as much as one of these devices could, at least), and thats the experience Im going for when I read pretty much anything. But I could understand why some hardcore comic fans would want to start off with the most color-accurate baseline as possible, and then adjust from there to fit their preferences. In addition to adjusting the warm light, the Kindle Colorsoft has vivid mode, which enhances color in less saturated images. For the sake of efficacy, most of my time was spent in standard mode when testing the Colorsoft. But in trying out vivid mode, I noticed that its enhanced saturation was most noticeable in warm-toned images: reds appeared ever-so-slightly more striking, while oranges and yellows had a more bronze effect and the like. But I had to turn vivid mode on and off a few times to clock the effect because its quite subtle. Then theres the question of actually reading words on the Colorsoft. Even the Kindle team representative I spoke with acknowledged that, due to the extra physical layer in the screen that enables color, one might notice a bit less sharpness and contrast in black-and-white text on the Colorsofts screen. Thats not unique to this particular Kindle every color ereader will have this issue to some degree. When comparing the text-only experience of the Kindle Colorsoft to that of the Kobo Libra Colour, I found both to be quite good and comparable to one another. Where theres a bigger possibility for discrepancies is in a comparison of the Colorsoft to, say, the new Kindle Paperwhite. I did not have the latter device to compare to, but I did have my personal, previous-generation Paperwhite, and the difference was ever so slight, with the standard Paperwhite having the (small) upper hand in the contrast and sharpness departments. Reading experience Photo by Valentina Palladino / Engadget The color screen is the most consequential thing about the Kindle Colorsoft, and chances are if youve had a Kindle in the past, te reading experience on this new device will feel quite familiar. The Kindle UI hasnt changed much, still dividing the main screen into Home and Library options. The former is basically a space for Amazon to serve you personalized book recommendations and promote new Kindle releases, while the latter shows your entire digital library including books, documents, Audible audiobooks and library loans. The Library page is striking in color and there is something undeniably satisfying about seeing all of your title covers in full-color glory. While reading a book, you can still customize and save different themes with fonts, font sizes and page layouts that best suit your preferences. You still have the option to quickly navigate within a title by page, location, chapter and even popular highlights. Page turns are speedy and will likely be an improvement for anyone coming from an older Kindle or other ereader. Annotations and your own highlights are collected in the same place for easy reference, and with the latter, you can filter by highlight color as well. You have four colors to choose from on the Colorsoft orange, yellow, blue and pink so if you use the yellow highlighter to mark favorite quotes, you can then filter by just that color. Note that all highlighting and note-taking must be done with your fingers because, unlike the Kindle Scribe, the Colorsoft has no stylus support. The pinch-to-zoom feature on the Colorsoft is good for those who read a lot of graphic novels and comics. Amazon developed a custom algorithm to make this motion as smooth as possible, and its a pretty good experience, albeit not a unique one. You can also pinch to zoom on the Kobo Libra Colour, which mostly helps get in closer to comic panels to read small text or better see minute details. On both devices, there are full-screen refreshes when you pinch to zoom on color images and the speed of completion is roughly the same. I also found image quality to be quite similar as well, and its worth noting that art style can skew your impression of an images quality. A comic that employs clean, distinct lines compared to one thats more grungy and watercolor-like will always come off more crisp. The Colorsoft, like the regular Kindle Paperwhite Signature Edition, also has an auto-adjusting front light that promises to illuminate the display just right depending on if youre reading outside on a sunny day, in the dark cabin of an airplane or anywhere else. Its a nice hardware perk to have and, with the feature turned on, removes much of manual fiddling that some might find annoying to do when they take their Kindle into different environments. The competition Photo by Valentina Palladino / Engadget While we already went through the screen comparisons for the $280 Kindle Colorsoft and the $220 Kobo Libra Colour, there are plenty of other differences between the two that you should consider when picking your next ereader. Ive added a spec list below to break down the basics, and the most consequential to me are the fact that the Kobo has page-turn buttons and stylus support. The former is really a matter of preference you either love physical buttons or you find no use for them but the latter is pure added value even if you do have to purchase the $70 Kobo stylus separately. It essentially allows you to turn the Libra Colour into a makeshift Kobo Sage or Kindle Scribe, which could be useful for anyone in academia (students and educators alike) or anyone who just loves the feeling of putting pen to paper. Meanwhile, the Kindle has the upper hand in its wireless charging capabilities and its slightly cleaner flush-front design. When it comes to actual content available on Kindle and Kobo devices, the libraries you can purchase from on both are vast: both have ebooks and audiobooks available, and both the Colorsoft and Libra Colour support Bluetooth, so you can listen to audiobooks directly from the device with your wireless headphones. At the time of writing this review, all of the top five New York Times bestseller titles were available on both platforms at the same prices, with the only discrepancies being one that was on sale as a Kindle ebook and one that was available to read for free for Kindle Unlimited and Kobo Plus subscribers. Both of those monthly subscriptions give you unlimited reading access to thousands of titles, but I would give the advantage to Amazon on this one since Kindle Unlimited has been around for much longer. mazon also has Prime Reading and Kids+ subscriptions that work with Kindle devices and provide even more content to paying subscribers. As far as borrowing ebooks from your local library goes, it might be a draw. Kobo integrates elegantly with Overdrive, making it nearly seamless to get borrowed books on your ereader. Simply connect your Overdrive account and library card in the settings menu and you can then either browse your librarys offerings directly on device, or use the Libby mobile app to borrow titles and those will appear automatically on your Kobo. My only gripe with this system is that it works best if you have just one library card, since you can only connect one at a time. Im a unique case where I have at least three library cards and I switch among them in Libby depending on which has the title Im looking for. Those like me might prefer the send to Kindle option in Libby, which just takes a couple more clicks to get any book from any library network to your Kindle device. The biggest downside here is that my Colorsoft review unit did not show all of my library book covers in full-color glory on the lock screen. After troubleshooting with a representative from Amazon, it was determined to be a title-specific issue. According to Amazon: "For library books, the lock screen is taken from the designated marketing cover for the book used by the library, which may not be the same as the actual book cover." So just know that if you get most of your reading material from your local library, there's a chance some of the covers may not display properly on the Colorsoft. Id be remiss if I didnt mention the $250 Boox Go Color 7, which earned a spot in our best ereaders guide after my colleague Amy Skorheim tested it. First, its imperative to know that Boox devices require a bit more tech-savvy than a Kindle or a Kobo, as well as a willingness to experiment. They are full-blown Android tablets after all, and that might be exactly what youre looking for if you get your reading material from many different sources, since it offers access to the Google Play Store and all of its apps. As for specs, the Go Color 7 has a seven-inch Kaleido 3 display with 300 ppi in black and white and 150 ppi in color (similar to the Colorsoft), along with a warm light, page-turn buttons, a splash-resistant design and 64GB of storage (and a microSD card slot for more space!). Its even more similar to the Kobo Libra Colour in feature set and price, so its another option for anyone willing to think a bit outside the standard ereader box. The decision between Kindle, Kobo and Boox is infinitely more complicated than choosing between the Colorsoft or the standard Kindle Paperwhite and thats precisely because of the stark price difference. The Colorsoft is $120 more than the regular Kindle Paperwhite ($100 more if you pay to remove the lock screen ads from the Paperwhite, and $80 more than the Signature Edition) and aside from the color panel, it only adds wireless charging, the auto-adjusting front light sensor and doubles the storage. Remove color from the equation, and arguably the most useful of all of those is the extra storage but, make no mistake, 16GB of space on the Kindle Paperwhite is nothing to scoff at and will be just fine for most people. Unless youre 100-percent certain that color will make a huge difference in your day-to-day reading experience, the standard Paperwhite is the better value. Wrap-up Photo by Valentina Palladino / Engadget While its very late to the color E Ink party, the Kindle Colorsoft is a solid premium ereader that provides an excellent experience both in color and black and white. I focused a lot on comparisons in this review because most people will not have the opportunity to have the Colorsoft and any of its contemporaries side by side (unless youre my dad, who buys almost every ereader and small tablet under the sun). But to be clear, the Colorsoft is a good Kindle, and in many ways, Amazon did pull an Apple here. If youre already heavily entrenched in the Kindle ecosystem and have been holding out for a color ereader, this is the device to get just be prepared to pay a premium for it. Also, like Apple and its various operating systems, theres something to be said about the convenience and ubiquity of the Kindle ecosystem. The library is seemingly endless (with discounts galore), supplemented by Prime Reading and Kindle Unlimited, so its easy to get sucked in when youre already shopping on Amazon for household goods and holiday gifts. But when it comes to value for your money (and a pure spec breakdown), you can get more from Koboand Boox devices. Kindle isnt the only name in town anymore for ereaders, and it hasnt been for a long time, and that seems to be a more pronounced fact now with the introduction of the Colorsoft. If nothing else, Amazon has finally filled a glaring hole in its ereader lineup with this device. Amazon Kindle Colorsoft vs. the competition Amazon Kindle Colorsoft Kobo Libra Colour Boox Go Color 7 Price $280 $220 $250 Display size 7-inch color E Ink Kalaido 3 (with custom display stack) 7-inch color E Ink Kalaido 3 7-inch color E Ink Kalaido 3 Pixel density 300 ppi (black-and-white), 150 ppi (color content) 300 ppi (black-and-white), 150 ppi (color content) 300 ppi (black-and-white), 150 ppi (color content) Storage 32GB 32GB 64GB Battery life Up to 8 weeks Up to 6 weeks 2,300 mAh capacity; "long-lasting" battery life Page-turn buttons No Yes Yes Adjustable warm light Yes Yes Yes Auto brightness adjustments Yes No No Auto warm light adjustments No Yes No Waterproof rating IPX8 IPX8 Not provided Pinch-to-zoom support Yes Yes Not provided Stylus support No Yes No Audiobook support Yes, Audible audiobooks Yes, Kobo audiobooks Yes, via Android apps Library support Yes, via Overdrive's "Send to Kindle" option Yes, via built-in Overdrive integration Yes, via Android apps Wireless charging Yes No No USB-C charging Yes Yes Yes Wi-Fi Yes Yes Yes Bluetooth Yes Yes Yes This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/tablets/kindle-colorsoft-review-the-missing-link-in-amazons-ereader-lineup-131529685.html?src=rss


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2024-10-30 14:01:46| Engadget

While cooking things like chicken, potatoes or veggies, I am often simultaneously waxing poetic about the brief period in my life that I owned an air fryer. It just makes everything easier while still creating really good quality food. Now I'm tempted to get back on the air fryer train thanks to a big sale on Ninja's DZ550 Air Fryer. The model is currently available in an early Black Friday deal for $130, down from $250 a 48 percent discount.  The DZ550 is a version of one of our top picks for air fryers with the extra perk of including a thermometer. The thermometer should provide you with the exact level of cooked you're looking for across the two independent five-quart air fryer baskets yes, you can cook two separate things simultaneously. You can also use two different options of the six cooking settings: air fryer, air broil, roast, bake, dehydrate and reheat.  The main issue with this air fryer is size. You do not want to get the Ninja DZ550 Air Fryer if your counter and storage spaces are limited. It has a depth of 17.1 inches and a width of 13.9 inches so it's going to take up some real estate. But, hey, it's that size that lets you cook two things at once so only you can decide if the trade-off is worth it.  Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/one-of-our-favorite-ninja-air-fryers-is-nearly-half-off-ahead-of-black-friday-130146753.html?src=rss


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2024-10-30 13:30:08| Engadget

Sennheiser has launched a new all-in-one microphone system that can transform according to your needs. The new Profile Wireless set comes with two clip-on microphones, which are pre-paired with a charging bar. While you can easily clip those mics to wherever you wish, you can also use the included magnetic mounts if you have to attach them to delicate clothing. If you're interviewing people in your video or shooting more traditional reporting-style content, you can turn one of the clip-on mics into a handheld mic by inserting it into the charging bar. You can also add the big foam windshield Sennheiser included in the package to block out environmental noise. Finally, the mic can also turn into a desktop mic by mounting it onto the included table stands. Sennheiser Profile Wireless' charging bar has an OLED touch display that shows the audio levels for the clip-on mics. It can connect to cameras, phones and laptops with the included adapters, so you can film with different devices. If you connect it to a phone using the Lightning or the USB-C adaptor included in the package, the receiver can automatically rotate to make sure its OLED display remains legible and visible to you.  Each clip-on mic has a 24-bit recording capability and comes with 16 GB memory for internal recording. If you switch on Backup Recording Mode, it will only use the mic's internal storage if its wireless signal becomes too weak to transmit audio to the recording device. The mics have a range of 245 meters (804 feet) within line of sight, and up to 150 meters within line of sight (492 feet) when taking body blocking into account. The Profile Wireless system is now available for pre-order in the US ($299), Europe (299) and the UK (259), making it cheaper than DJI's comparable microphone set. That said, Sennheiser's mic doesn't have Bluetooth connectivity, while DJI's does. It doesn't have a solid shipping date yet, but it will be released either sometime in the fourth quarter of 2024 or the first quarter of 2025.  Sennheiser This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/audio/sennheisers-profile-wireless-is-a-clip-on-tabletop-and-handheld-mic-all-in-one-123008296.html?src=rss


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